Your Opinion: Proposed library tax hike favored

Your Opinion: Proposed library tax hike favored

On Aug. 7, the Missouri River Regional Library will be asking voters living in its service area of Cole and Osage counties to increase the levy by 10 cents.

This is the first time since the mid-1960s that the library has asked for an increase, yet utilities, insurance, books, and magazine and newspaper subscriptions have all risen way beyond what they cost at that time.

In addition to those resources, the library offers public computers with Internet access, a bookmobile, multiple subscription databases for genealogical, business, and scholarly research, DVDs, CDs, and e-books. Plus there's homework help for teens, book clubs, children's programs, family events, workshops and much more. All of this costs the library money and what does it cost us? Right now, that cost is only 19 cents per $100 valuation for property owners.

Increasing that tiny amount by 10 cents will provide the library with more resources to serve us. With 95 percent of its total budget coming from property taxes, the library can use that extra dime now more than ever.

As a regular library user, I get much more out of the library than I pay in taxes for it. How do I know? By going to the Library Value Calculator at www.supportmrrl.org I was able to discover that I receive over $800 in services from the library and that's much more than I pay in library tax each year. What other service is available to us with such a great return on investment?